February 2009 Grocery Challenge

gunsandbanjos

Just been having a gander at the green fingered thread - thinking of growing some fruit and veg this year. I obviously dont have a garden, what can i grow on my windowsills? I have loads of windowsill space! Peppers, lettuce, chillies etc Would it be possible to grow cucumber? Anything else grow well?

rach

I'm going to have to be very strict this month, think I may have been a bit silly to push the budget down £10 from last month when I went over a bit! Oh well, I like a challenge. I've just set up an online shop for next Thurs which came out at about £65 before offers so I will have to perhaps take a few bits out before then...

Have just found out my local M&S food reduces loads of stuff on a friday at 6.30 so am going to give it a try tomorrow, may be able to get a few bargains and then cut my tesco shop down.

PennyGrabber

Spent £2 today on sausage and chips for my 2. The stupid car had a slow puncture, so I needed to take that to a garage to fix it. Then we were really late home, so just popped into chippy. Naughty I know, but it fed them enough, plus most of a meal for me. I'll just have a snack later and then we're sorted. Not too bad for £2!

The tyre was fixable, so it cost £19.99 instead of however much a new one would've been, so happy about that I suppose!

For those of you that remember my freezer trouble of a few weeks ago, get ready to laugh/cry! My downstairs electrics turned off last night, so everything went off for the whole night! I managed to find the fuses and stuff this morning and turn it back on, and luckily, the freezer was fine. That could've been giving up time!! Grrrrr!

These things are sent to try us - and try us they do!

Have a great night all,
PG x

rosieben

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

Just been having a gander at the green fingered thread - thinking of growing some fruit and veg this year. I obviously dont have a garden, what can i grow on my windowsills? I have loads of windowsill space! Peppers, lettuce, chillies etc Would it be possible to grow cucumber? Anything else grow well?

I'd definitely try anything with 'bush' or 'mini' in the name! It depends on what light you get but I would think you could do bush tomatoes, and a smaller growing cucumber (smaller plant and smaller fruit), also spring onions, lettuce, radishes, and chillies and peppers as you said and you could even try some round carrots. I'd have a look through some veg seed catalogues and see what's on offer You'd need to treat it like a greenhouse and make sure plants get shade from scorching sun

Julimk

I went to Mr T today & had enough vouchers to cover everything on my list, plus a few bits that DD inevitably added to the basket (bless!:rolleyes: ) and a couple of quid off the cake she wanted too (the balance coming out of the gifts budget as part of her birthday pressie).

So … another NSD on the grocery budget!:D

Only a week to go, so should make it now. Half term is a cheap week for me too, as DD will go to her Dad’s for the week & I am happy to make do with what is in. Just need to get through the birthday weekend (DD’s), but I am only entertaining one little friend, so should be OK.

Flat_Eric

Evening all :wave:

Im a tad frustrated. my grocery spending seems to be getting out of control.

Both Mr T and my organic veg were delivered today yet I still felt the need to go down to somerfield and spend another £46 so in all, today on food I have probably spent more than £120.

My fridge is a mess with everything just shoved in. I have no room for my organic veg and some of my other veg has had to be removed to make room for my Mr T order.

Was annoyed that the organic veg company didnt have my blood oranges (the whole point of the order in the first place).

Got a couple of whoopsies in Somerfield - some pork steaks which I have portioned up and frozen but was rather miffed that on an end aisle they had fabric conditioner - i picked up two different ones and of course one wasnt in the offer and Ive been charged full price :mad:. They should not mix non offer items with promotional stock because how many people fall foul of it?

I have already planned my menu for the next few days but need to sit down and jig things around so stuff that needs using up gets eaten before it goes off.

Im well stocked up on cat food, washing powder, fabric conditioner etc so no need to go to the supermarket anytime soon although I do need (want) to get some oranges and tesco didnt have my tofu so will consider getting that too.

Hope the latter 2 weeks of Feb go a bit better!

booklover

Well it is so good to read everyone's inspiring and helpful posts. They are just brilliant...

I hadn't had much time to post recently but so far have spent £103.44. This was in Tesco and Sainsburys and included lots things like toilet rolls and dishasher powder and plenty of fruit.

Fruit and veg is so expencive isnt it?

Hopefully I will meet my target of £180 thus month! I aim to do my best.

Take care everyone and good luck to you all :A :A

Fiona x

s4aRainyDay

Hello!

this is my first post, i've been reading the other months challenges and thought i'd start ( a bit late i know!) I've worked out that sains gets about £300 of my money each month, i always go with a short shopping list and end up spending far too much. So i've decided to to make a long list and only go food shopping once a month, filling and emptying the freezer each month. £150 in one big go an £50 float for things like milk and bread (between 2 of us we drink about 6 pints/wk) from the coop down the road. so that make £200 for me, the bf and the very fussy cat. I'v planned a month meals, and finger crossed!

x

TheBees

As my DD broke her flute I had to take it to the repair man who lives in a town with a Lidl in it. So I took advantage of this and spent exactly £30 in there on some tins, a FR chicken, lots of mozzarella which I've frozen, some ham etc.....Also bought DH a razor which was only about £3 and came with 5 blades. (He almost bought himself some new razor blades in co-op the other day but put them back when he realised they were going to cost him £8 for 5:eek: . ) Will let you all know how he gets on with it tom morning!

Orchid 96- For the pork/chorizo casserole I did brown the meat, chorizo and onions and then put al of the ingredients in the SC. (The baked beans were an extra as I had some leftovers in the fridge and I decided to add the potato because I couldn't be bothered to boil them separately - plus the dumplings were my idea too because we love them !). I guess the original recipe might still be on the BBC website.

Made Jamie O's chicken korma in the slow cooker this evening so it's ready for toms tea when we get in. It smells lovely.

TheBees

TrixieB

Had a moment of weakness during top up shop for some vegetables, and ended up spending £17 in Asda on the veggies, reduced bargains ( mackerel, sausages, beef and chicken) and treats grr!

Have amended total and am not spending anything else except the big Tesco delivery which I will have delivered next Fridayish.